A/N: Okay, so one again I've been falling completely behind on my updates. However, I have this chapter and the next one done so don't completely hate me please! ENJOY!
Timeline: This chapter takes place in July 2011 so Emily and Hotch have been together for just over a year and living together for about two months. Jack is 5 here.
Chapter 12
L is for Laundry
"Emmy, do you know where my Thomas the Train 'jama pants are? I want to take them to Pen's next time I stay over and Daddy says I have to pack my bag now, just in case," Jack ran into the kitchen to where Emily was taking a tray of cookies out of the oven.
"Did you look in the bottom drawer?" she asked the five-year-old as he leaned over the tray and looked appreciatively at the chocolate chip cookies that were resting there. "Careful, sweetheart, those are really really hot."
Jack took one last longing look at the cookies, but stepped away. "Yeah, I looked in the drawer."
"Where's Daddy?" Emily asked, wanting to get the next tray of cookies in the oven but knowing that she had to help with the pajama pants first.
"He's working. He was on the phone with Uncle Dave when he told me to get my bag ready," Jack reported.
"All right, well go get everything else together and I'll find them, okay?" Emily suggested, deciding that the cookies would wait.
"Okay," he nodded and went back to his room.
Emily and Hotch had found that with both of them on the road at a moment's notice, it was much easier to have ready-bag for Jack as well as their own. That way, a handoff to Penelope or or Jessica or Will's custody was much smoother and there was no doubt that the boy would have everything he needed while they were gone. Plus, it made it easier on Jack when they all packed their bags together, it made it seem less like they were just leaving him behind.
Emily went into the laundry room and sighed when she saw the huge pile of stuff that was waiting to be cleaned.
She turned on the water and figured she may was well throw a load in while she was there.
A pair of Aaron's pants, two pairs of Jack's mini-sized jeans, one dark blue polo, another forest green one, a dark red one, her black sweater, a mini-sized green polo, a blue one, her red turtleneck, her black fleece pullover, a pair of black pants, and about fifty socks later, she shut the washer and began to sift through the clean clothes for Jack's desired pants, folding as she went.
She'd found a routine very quickly when she started doing laundry like this. Sort as you fold—two groups of things, things that stay home and things that are packed into a ready-bag—and put the stacks in very specific places so that there's no confusion. That routine had been adopted when Emily had accidentally grabbed a stack of Aaron's clothes and shoved them into her ready-bag on the run. She'd ended up having to go to a Walmart and wear itchy, poorly fitting clothes for the four days they were gone.
She found the Thomas the Train pants and set them in Jack's pile as she finished the pile of clean clothes.
She loaded the clean, folded clothes into a laundry basket to distribute them to the rooms in which they belonged and was about to shut the light off and leave the room when she glanced back and suddenly was hit with a smile.
It was something so simple, so completely unimportant—laundry—but it showed just how perfect her life had become.
When she lived by herself, she'd done laundry—three loads—once every three weeks. It took about two and a half hours, start to finish, and it was a neat and organized affair. As soon as something was dirty, it went into the hamper, and then on every other Sunday (assuming she was home) it went into the washer, then directly into the dryer, was folded immediately after being dried and put away soon after.
Now, laundry was anything but a neat and organized affair. There was constantly clothes strewn about the house. Jack had the habit of shedding clothes in a trail, instead of just in one place. Anytime the boy was sent to shower, you could track his path by tracing the dropped shirt, then socks, then pants, then cute little Spiderman or Batman underwear.
Surprisingly, Emily had found, this was a habit Jack seemed to have picked up from his father. Aaron was a clean and organized person in every aspect of his life, but for some reason, he never seemed to find the hamper. There was always an undershirt tossed over the chair, pants left in a pile, a tie hanging on the doorknob.
Not that Emily minded picking up after her boys—not in the slightest in fact. It just changed her laundry doing routine drastically from the one she had followed in her solitary life. Now, it was about collecting all of the clothes (invariably she ended up kicking herself for missing something) and leaving it in a massive pile to do a load here or a load there, whenever she found the time.
Standing there in the doorway, looking at the mixture of garments littering the floor, she knew that there was absolutely no competition between which type of laundry that she preferred. She loved the look of all of their things jumbled together—she chuckled lightly at the sight of Jack's bright red SpongeBob shirt nestled between Aaron's pile of dress shirts—because she thought it was a great display of how well their lives had mixed.
Sure, she'd been a little bit scared at first. She'd been pretty deeply ingrained in the Hotchner men's lives prior to officially moving in, but it was different now. Very, very good different she decided. There was nothing quite like waking up every single morning with Aaron's face right next to hers, knowing that Jack was down the hall sleeping peacefully in his Thomas the Train themed bed.
"Em?" a voice pulled her out of her reverie.
She turned and saw Aaron standing there looked a little confused. "Yeah?"
"You okay? Jack said that you were looking for his pants but that he hadn't seen you in awhile…I just wanted to make sure you didn't fall in or something," he appraised her cautiously.
"I just figured I may as well throw a load in, it's building up again. Then I folded everything that was in the dryer, no falling in," Emily grinned.
Hotch reached out and took the basket for her, leaning across it to kiss her lightly on the lips. "Thanks, I've been meaning to do that, but then Dave called and I had to take it."
"Oh really? And what about the other three days that those clothes have been sitting there?" she teased with a smile.
"I'm sorry," he sighed heavily. "I really have been trying to help, I don't want you to have to do everything, I just have been trying to get as much work done as possible and still spend time with Jack."
"It's fine, I don't mind doing it, really. You should be spending time with Jack," she assured him, handing over the basket.
"So you were standing in the door smiling because…you like folding…?" Hotch asked skeptically, returning to the original avenue of conversation.
"Funny," she rolled her eyes and hesitated but decided to admit her real thoughts. She knew she was being sappy, but the worst that could happen is that Aaron would tease her about it, and she didn't really mind that anyway. "I was just thinking about how I like the way all of our clothes look all mixed together like they belong that way."
Hotch grinned, but didn't tease. "That's because they do belong that way."
"Aw, who knew? Aaron Hotchner—closet softy," Emily poked his side.
"Don't spread that around. I'd rather you didn't ruin my bad boy image," he nudged her with his shoulder as they neared Jack's room.
"Yes sir, Agent Hotchner," she chuckled and scooped Jack's belongings out of the basket and entered the room. "Here ya go Buddy, I found your pants. And the shirt that you thought you left at Aunt Jess's."
"Thanks Emmy! Can I have a cookie now?" he asked with a puppy-dog face, one he knew that she could never deny.
"Finished getting your bag ready and then after Daddy checks it, you can have one with a glass of milk, how's that?" Emily suggested.
"Okay," Jack agreed quickly and tucked his pants into his bag.
With that, she went back into the kitchen and spooned out another tray of cookies. She was just sliding them into the oven when Aaron entered with a giggling Jack.
She looked up and saw that Hotch had his son in his arms and was tickling his stomach, causing the cute brown-haired boy to squeal and thrash with laughter.
"I hear you promised this little beast cookies and milk?" Hotch addressed Emily.
"It just so happens that I did. Although, I think that cookies and milk for the little beast's father could probably be arranged as well," Emily nodded, putting a plate with a cookie on the table and pouring a small glass of milk as well.
"Thanks sweetheart," Hotch smiled, placing another gentle kiss on Emily's lips after he set Jack down on the floor.
"Of course," Emily returned the smile and stroked his cheek.
The three of them sat and each ate a cookie with a small glass of milk while Hotch and Emily listened to Jack recount a story about his last trip to the park with his aunt.
"Put your plate in the dishwasher," Emily reminded Jack when he finished his cookie and she cringed as he wiped his chocolate-y face on the sleeve of his white shirt.
"What do you say to Em?" Hotch prompted just as Jack was about to run out of the kitchen.
"Thanks Emmy. You're cookies are way better than Daddy's. Love you," Jack ran back over and smacked a kiss to Emily's cheek before taking off.
"Love you too," Emily called after him with a smile.
Yeah, her new life was a definite improvement over the old one, bad laundry habits and all.
A/N: Okay, so like I said, I suck. I'm really sorry for going so long without updating. I have mono, which sucks, but then I ended up going to Paris for the French Open anyway. So, it was really fun, and I wrote this chapter and the next one on the flight home last Sunday night, but then I pretty much slept for the next five days because I was so exhausted. Anyway, I'm really sorry for the delay and I'll put the next chapter up in a couple days, after I hopefully make a little headway on the one after that. Let me know what you think! Oh, and this is un-betaed so let me know if there are any mistakes that hinder the reading and I'll change it.
